I first want to say that I am very proud of what Joan has done in the Peace Corps. To drop down into a village and have to assimilate, learn the language and customs, work with the local committee and identify needs in the community, come up with a plan and make it work is not as easy as it looks.So while we looked forward to visiting Joan in her village, we first couldn’t wait to see her at the airport and the anticipation of meeting her as we got through customs was deflated when we couldn’t find her. We were also not sure our phones would work, I tried to test the roaming update feature and that did not appear to be working, so just tried to call her number and finally figured it out. It turns out her alarm didn’t go off and she was still asleep in her hotel room in Santiago. Once she finally arrived we got our hugs in and made the somewhat precarious trip over a mountain road to the resort. Due to the recent hurricanes and rainstorms that had flooded the area only a week before, the road was still riddled with washed out areas, huge potholes on a curvy road that didn’t have any guardrails. The fact that is was dark and we were tired worked to our advantage.
Once we got to the Windsurf Resort in the town of Caberete, we found out the hotel had it’s share of problems with the weather and that the route to our room was flooded with water requiring us to remove our shoes and walk through it to get to our stairway. Not a good first impression, but luckily our rooms were on the 2nd floor so all was dry up there. The ground dried out by the next day and we were able to go our way without wading through water.
The resort itself is a bit tired and in the process of renovation and picky travelers would probably have been a bit perturbed by the accommodations. But we kind of liked the fact that is not pretentious and we felt that we could relax and be ourselves. For Joan and her Peace Corps colleague, Bianca, who visited us from her village a few miles away where she was bathing in the river due to recent flooding, the opportunity to take a hot shower mad it feel like a 5 star resort. The advantage of staying at a place like the Windsurf Resort is that it is not a protected, gated resort so that you have an opportunity to experience the town with all it’s good and bad points. The disadvantage is that you are not protected from constantly being hit on by the locals to purchase jewelry, pasties, get a massage, braid your hair, and even shine your shoes. In one way you have to admire the pluck of the locals, especially the shoeshine boys trying to sell shoe shining when 95% of the people are wearing sandals! But after awhile you just want them to leave you alone.
We met the owner of the resort, a Londoner of German descent by the name of Rodney Geminder, I called him Sir Rodney, and we had a number of interesting conversations about his plans for the resort and views of life. Rodney has been living in the DR for about 30 years and spends most of his time there. He has a true affection for the people, he refers to them as physically very beautiful and appreciates their overall friendliness. While he appreciates the slower pace of life, he does get a bit frustrated with it from time to time and then feels the need to head back to London for a dose of reality and to remind him of why he enjoys the DR. He also takes it upon himself to feed the stray cats that visit the resort, referring to himself as the “catman” and the following picture shows him with one of his cat friends. He also commented on how some of the guests at his resort in the past have objected about the resort. He thought that we were good travelers in that we more or less took things in stride and were willing to enjoy the experience that presented itself rather than complaining about trivial inconveniences. Some travelers that are perhaps less experienced or lead more sheltered lives tend to be better off at an all inclusive, sheltered resort experience. Well enough pontificating about what great travelers we are, I am sure Rodney sees the new resorts being developed right down the street and his “resort” is undergoing a big expansion and renovation and will be a different experience in the coming years.
One day we embarked on a guided tour of 4 beaches and a location that enabled us to see and taste coconuts, passion fruit, coffee beans and other local foods in a neat setting. Our leader for the trip was local character named Rafael Mercedes. A very energetic man with an infections laugh and a willingness to help you with whatever you might need. We ended up renting his Honda CRV for 3 days for $50 Cash per day, all-inclusive, it was definitely one of the best deals I have ever had.
We used the vehicle to the Playa Grande golf course ( a very nice experience, right on the ocean and a great caddy ) and also to take a trip to Samana Peninsula town of Las Terrenes to visit Joan’s friend Ricky. We met the entire family, had a delicious meal cooked for us and then loaded up the family, 10 of us in the CRV, to the nearest beach, Playa Bonita, over flooded pot hole ridden roads, it was fun actually.
The beach itself was truly beautiful, we went down some trails to a more secluded area, there was no one there trying to sell us anything, the water and beach again was warm and beautiful and there was even Noni fruit available for the picking in the bushes near the ocean. Just a wonderful and neat experience, wished we had more time to spend there. We made a quick stop at Joan’s village on the way back to the resort, but it made for a long day on the road and we turned in the car the next day.
Mary mentioned our stop at the Blue Lagoon in her blog contribution, we also stopped at 2 other beaches, the water was warm, clean and wonderful and we got a chance to meet and make friends with some of the other guests, so it was time well spent.
Overall, we enjoyed our time in Caberete, but were looking forward to our visit to Joan’s village. So we hired one of Rafael’s drivers to take us to Joan’s village of Matancitas and almost made it to the village before being stopped by the local military who apparently were looking for weapons. I am glad I wasn’t driving that day! Our driver seemed to know what to do and we were on our way.
The experience in Joan’s village was a lot of fun. Waking up to the sounds of various roosters every morning was certainly new to me. Add to that the neighbor who was working on his house and sounded like he was peeling off his metal roof and the people across the street who insisted on playing their Spanish music so the entire neighborhood could hear every morning between 7 – 8AM meant that we didn’t sleep too late and were ready to start the day.
We enjoyed meeting all the people in Joan’s community that we had heard about. It was a bit frustrating from a conversation standpoint in that our Spanish was better then most of their English. Poor Joan’s head was spinning by the time we left and there were times when she was talking to me in Spanish to the Dominicans in english. If I head back for another visit I will definitely want to work on my Spanish.
Because the weather is always so warm and the houses so small and in most cases not air-conditioned, most people are out every night so meeting people is extremely easy and in most cases unavoidable. It creates a sense of community that is certainly lacking in our culture due to our internal media centers and our busy lives. Drinking beer for example usually involves a group or people sitting around with small plastic cups sharing a large bottle of Presidente and chatting in front of someone’s house. In any event there are always people out and about, music playing and many outdoor and indoor opportunities to do Merengue and Bachata dancing. I personally want to thank Tina for showing me some great meringue moves. Joan showed me the basics to get me going, but Tina definitely took it a step further.
While what I am saying sounds very idealistic and ignores many of the issues that exist in the DR that Joan is trying to work on, it is refreshing to see that people can adjust to their circumstances and learn to live with less. In one way it makes you appreciate what you have but it also reminds us that less can be more, boy that was deep!
We also met Harry, an American expatriate, who has lived there for about 30 years now and is married to a local Dominican woman, Deysi (Daisy) that he met when he went to the DR to teach English. Harry is 79 years old he has a 24 year old son named Albert - gotta love that. Harry is the type of person that can make and fix anything, so he has an elaborate backup
generator system that seamlessly kicks in whenever the power goes out. Thanks to Albert and Harry’s tools, we were able to get a bucket and some wire that we could rig up to a pole that Joan had to get water out of her well. Albert also came by after we left to get Joan’s water pump fixed so she now has running water, even thought we didn’t have it during our stay. We didn’t get a chance to see Harry again, but would like to look him up again if we ever go back. 
We had meals cooked for us by 2 different families in our 4 nights at Matancitas. Niña actually came to Joan’s house and prepared dinner one day, a delicious chicken dish with rice. We had Christmas dinner with the Alvarado-Florimon family, I think there were 16 of us enjoying a smorgasbord of food, the highlight for me was the coconut flavored rice. The coconut was first shaved from fresh picked local coconuts, then the coconut milk
was hand squeezed by Ada and mixed into the rice - deelish! Despite the fact that rumor had it the electricity was not going to be shut off by the local powers that be, no sooner had we raised our glasses with a fresh pour of Presidente in anticipation of enjoying our feast when the lights went dark and we were scrambling for light and power. After the initial moaning, we quickly got various lanterns, candles and battery operated lighting (brought from the U.S.) in place and had a wonderful time. Followed by dancing in the front room with music powered by a hand cranked portable radio, good times!
There were many other positive experiences and people that we met but this blog entry is probably too long already so I will stop here.
Because we were only there for 4 days in the village, we didn’t get that may opportunities for revisits, so despite my initial reservations about staying in Joan’s village, next time we visit we will just go straight there and skip the “resort”.
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